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Road Safety Bill [Lords]

The offence would be on the statute book, but the penalties would be weaker and the magistrates courts would not have the option of imprisoning offenders. The possibility of community sentencing would also be lost. Outside organisations are concerned about the impact that that would have. There is a further point. The hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell talked tough about dangerous driving and bad drivers, but resiled from that when it came to some of the details. I hope he will reconsider. If we tell people that they must pay more careful attention to their driving, and if we take the bold step, as my right hon. Friend pointed out, of saying that they will otherwise go to prison, there is a need for consistency and care in the message that we send out and in what we tell drivers to do. If we blow hot and cold, people are left not knowing where they stand. That also dilutes the effectiveness of a Bill that deals with the range of driving behaviour, introducing more penalties and sending out robust messages about what people ought to be doing when they are in cars.